Sula Vineyards to cash on Singapore’s new love for home wining and dining amid Covid-19 outbreak

Indian winemaker Sula Vineyards has added Singapore its export portfolio to capitalise on the South-East Asian country’s growing affinity towards wine, increasing off-premise consumption and rise in home entertaining due to Covid-19 outbreak. The Nashik-based winery, which holds 60% of the market share in India, enters Singapore in collaboration with food distribution firm and largest importer of Indian brands Sonnamera.

Rajeev Samant, founder of Sula Vineyards, said, “Singapore is a thriving wine hub. The Singaporean consumer now has the choice of experiencing our wines in these difficult times while staying safe.”

According to GlobalData, Singapore’s wine market is expected to grow at a rate of 5.1% CAGR from 2016-2021, reaching a market value of $1.4 billion by 2021.

Singapore’s wine lovers will get to taste Sula’s popular portfolio of wines such as Cabernet Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc, Dindori Reserve Shiraz, and Riesling. The wines will be distributed through Sonnamera which also represents brands such as Tata, MTR, Daawat Rice, Saffolla and Haldiram in the South-East Asian country.

The distribution firm will target ecommerce platforms, major Indian restaurants and modern retail like NTUC Fairprice and Singapore’s online supermarket Redmart to sell Sula’s wines.

“Over the past few months with the onset of Covid-19, off-premise consumption of wine has driven rapid growth in the category. We expect this trend to continue to be strong for several months as more meals are cooked at home and home entertaining takes precedence over dining out,” said Abhay Sharma, founder of Sonnamera.

Sula’s wines are exported to 30 countries including top markets such as Italy, France and Spain. Pre-pandemic, Australia was the last country to be added to its export portfolio.